Petition: 'Bachelorette' must cast more plus-sized contestants

Coinciding with Monday's season 19 premiere of ABC's "The Bachelorette," a group advocating body diversity has launched an online petition to have more plus-sized contestants cast on both this and the network's fellow TV dating competition, "The Bachelor."

"We are demanding that The Bachelor franchise include fat contestants in their pool of hopeful singles," reads the Change.org petition from Roses for Every Body. "Fat people exist. Fat people are beautiful. Fat people deserve a chance to find love. Fat people deserve social platforms and capital. Fat people are not punchlines or traumatic storylines."

The petition goes on to state that in 20 years of the franchise, on which more than 1,100 single men and women have competed, there have been "only two documented, self-identified plus-size contestants within The Bachelor franchise. They both went home on night one."

The petition notes, "Diverse body inclusion in the arts & entertainment industry matters. This representation is one of many ways our society can and must tackle and eradicate violent anti-fat bias." It asks ABC, production companies Warner Bros. and NZK Productions and franchise creator Mike Fleiss to begin casting "a minimum of 5 diverse, fat people each season of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette" and "leads who specify that they will date diverse fat people," as well as include fat production crew and staff and give "equitable, non-fat-identity-focused screen time to the fat contestants."

Recognizing the potential for backlash, the petition also asks for "support to fat contestants, including on-set mental health professionals, inclusive wardrobe sizing, and mental health support to navigate anti-fat harassment from the audience once the show airs."

Among the organizers is Portland, Oregon-based comic Jenna Vesper, co-host of the long-running "Bachelor"-franchise podcast "Date Card," who wrote on Instagram Monday, "For the last 4 months I've been working with a group of … [B]achelor fans on a MONUMENTAL campaign to demand @bachelorabc start casting fat people. It's honestly not that radical of an idea if you ask us … yet it has been 20 years of exclusion. … Media representation matters. Especially in media that is so accessible, like reality television." 

Supporters of the petition, which had garnered over 3,500 signatures in its first day, include Katie Thurston, star of last year's "Bachelorette" season 17, who wrote, "I love this so much!" in one of three posts on the topic on Instagram Stories, where content cycles out after 24 hours. Additionally, former NFL player Clay Harbor, a contestant on "The Bachelorette" in 2018 and "Bachelor in Paradise" the following year, reposted a petition link on his own Instagram Stories.

A similar effort by the Bachelor Diversity Campaign had helped lead to the casting of Rachel Lindsay as the first Black star of "The Bachelorette" for that show's 13th season in 2017, and Matt James as the first Black star of "The Bachelor," for that show's 25th season last year. That group tweeted its support Monday.

Representatives for ABC and for Warner Bros. did not respond to Newsday requests for comment.